Women's Lacrosse

Women's Lacrosse Comes Back to Down Salve Regina, 13-12

NORTH DARTMOUTH, MA- For the first 27 minutes, the the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's women's lacrosse team played to a neck-and-neck deadlock with the Salve Regina Seahawks. The game then took one big swing back, followed by a momentous, memorable swing forward as the Corsairs overcame a five goal deficit in the game's final 13 minutes to pull out a 13-12 victory at Cressy Field Tuesday afternoon.

Senior captain Allison Trearchis (Tyngsboro, Mass./Tyngsboro HS) scored the game's deciding goal by stuffing home a feed from junior attacker Gillian Carey (Waltham, Mass./Waltham HS/UMass Amherst) with 1:30 to play. The game-winner came just 32 seconds after senior defender Andrea Russo (Tyngsboro, Mass./Tyngsboro HS) tied the game on a free position shot for her third goal of the afternoon. The Corsairs had trailed for over 30 minutes prior to Russo's marker.

"I think that our captains really stepped up and showed the way today," said jubilant UMass Dartmouth Head Coach Jerry Jennings. "When we talked to them and asked them to get up and do their job as leaders, they did it, and they inspired the whole team. Everybody stepped it up a notch and played well."

The Corsairs dug themselves a five goal deficit by allowing the Seahawks to bookend halftime with three goals on either side, scoring six of the game's seven goals over a six minute stretch. "I think in that stretch, we slacked off a little bit," Jennings said. "We weren't seeing the whole field. We weren't using our pass opportunities and our options to create our offense and move down the field in transition."

Sandwiched in the middle of the Seahawk run, Russo scored what proved to be a crucial goal with five seconds remaining in the first half. The Corsairs trailed 8-6 at halftime and 12-7 after the final Seahawk goal of the game with 13:07 remaining.

At halftime, Jennings again elected to swap out freshman goalie Angelina Donovan (Medford, Mass./Medford HS) for her senior counterpart Liz Miller (Littleton, Mass./Westford Academy). Each keeper tallied five saves apiece, for a total of ten on the day. Miller withstood an early surge by the Seahawk offense and held on to limit Salve to four second half goals, none of which were scored in the game's final 13 minutes.

After the game, Jennings praised Miller's clutch performance. "When you have a goalie that steps up like that, it's an incentive to all the players for them to step up," Jennings said. "She really did stop a lot of point blank shots. She cleared the ball well and she was another factor on defense outside the goal ring. I think she had her best half of the season right there."

Freshman attacker Brittney Enos (East Falmouth, Mass./East Falmouth HS) began the Corsairs' reversal of fortune by scoring consecutive goals on free position shots with 12:29 and 10:48 remaining, respectively. Enos then assisted the next Corsair goal, scored by senior midfielder Liz Stapleton (Wakefield, Mass./Wakefield HS) with five minutes to play, slashing the deficit to 12-10. Enos made her return to the field on Tuesday after missing Saturday's game due to injury.

"Enos is one of the better freshmen that we've had here in a number of years," Jennings said. "She's a real gamer. She was really chafing at the bit to get back in, but our trainers did the right thing, and when she came back, we knew she was at 100 percent. Enos at 100 percent is really something to deal with for the opponents, and she showed that today."

Carey got the Corsairs on the board first by scoring her first of two goals just 1:59 into the first half. Both of Carey's goals were assisted were assisted by junior attacker Samantha Wonson (Lowell, Mass./Lowell HS). Their second half contribution narrowed the gap to 12-11 with 4:34 remaining. Wonson scored a goal of her own to tie the game at 5 with 3:54 remaining in the first half, effectively ending the back-and-forth phase of the game.

Russo led the way with three goals for the Corsairs, while Carey, Stapleton, Enos, and Trearchis all tallied two apiece.

In postgame comments, Jennings noted that the victory was a stark improvement over a 25-10 defeat at the hands of Salve Regina in 2009.

The Corsairs improved to 3-2 with the victory, while the Seahawks dropped to 1-6 with the defeat. UMass Dartmouth will return to action when they visit Framingham State Saturday. Salve Regina will visit Roger Williams Thursday.